


climbing

by spoke



Category: Chrono Trigger
Genre: F/M, Gen, Misses Clause Challenge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-16
Updated: 2018-12-16
Packaged: 2019-09-20 12:15:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,132
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17022441
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spoke/pseuds/spoke
Summary: I know you had requested Robo too, and I'm sorry I didn't see a way to work him into this. I hope you enjoy it anyway!





	climbing

**Author's Note:**

  * For [The_Exile](https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Exile/gifts).



> I know you had requested Robo too, and I'm sorry I didn't see a way to work him into this. I hope you enjoy it anyway!

Just looking at the snow cloaked mountain made Marle shiver. The thought of climbing it would have frightened her if she hadn’t been so angry. It was going to be worth it, though. If there were a way to get Schala back, she’d have done that, too.

But Schala might still be out there somewhere in the frozen wastelands of the past, and Crono just - wasn’t. She kept trying not to think about the fact that if they hadn’t gone looking for Magus, they might not have this chance. She hadn’t trusted him at first and still had her doubts about why he was helping them. Being used to fulfill Magus’s dreams of vengeance, well, it would have been too much of a risk for anything but getting Crono back.

So they’d taken him to the End of Time, where Frog was livid and needed to have the whole thing explained to him before they could even talk to the old man about Crono. Marle didn’t blame him. She knew this was pretty terrible. But she stood by the decision she’d made in the past, watching Magus look out over the sea that had swallowed his home.

Crono wouldn’t have wanted them to fight Magus. Crono would have sympathized with him.

* * *

They could barely hear each other over the wind’s howling. The bitter cold wasn’t helping either, Lucca thought - her ears felt so numb that it was a wonder they even worked anymore, and she was wearing a helmet. How Ayla and Marle could stand it in those outfits was beyond her understanding. She had started to suggest that they needed better gear for this, but the sense of urgency had been too much, even for her.

The idea of going back home for coats while any chance of getting Crono back slipped away ...

“If we die up here, it’s not going to do him much good anyway,” she muttered, not realizing she’d spoken aloud until Ayla responded.

“Not die, Lucca! Lucca strong. Ayla and Marle strong! Make it up mountain for Crono.” She nodded, then added, a bit quieter and in a teasing tone, “Maybe lose toe, lose finger. Not tell Marle.”

Lucca snorted. She shook her head as they prepared to dodge out from behind their sheltering tree. “Lucca will tell Marle that she said so - that _I_ said so, darn it - after this is all over. If that happens. Hasn’t yet though, so we can hope.”

There was no more speaking until they’d made it up to the next tree, pausing to breathe as the wind surged past. After a few moments, Ayla responded. “No hope. Fight! Keep moving, keep warm. Defeat monsters! Not have problem coming back down. Crono maybe not able to fight after come back.”

Lucca flinched, staring at her in worry. It really hadn’t occurred to her that he might not be able to fight. How were they going to get him down the mountain?!

* * *

If it weren’t for the wind pushing them back, she’d have made the climb in record time. As it was, she’d gotten ahead of Lucca and Ayla somehow and found herself trapped waiting for them. It felt like an eternity, watching as they made their own way past the winds, and a few monsters died to her bowshot as she waited.

She noticed distantly that her aim had really improved over the course of the adventure, even if she hadn’t much liked the idea of fighting at the start. To be fair, she hadn’t _disliked_ it, either, it was just ... one more new thing happening since she’d met Crono. She’d been learning the crossbow before that, it being one of the few things her father approved of her doing, but it hadn’t really interested her.

Now, well. Nothing was going to touch her friends ever again. She almost wanted something else to show up and try to eat her, just for something to do to keep from screaming.

As soon as Lucca and Ayla caught up, Marle turned back to climbing. If she didn’t keep moving she wasn’t sure what she’d do.

* * *

Ayla had seen places like this at home, far away from her village. Not so far from the Laruba. It was different to be in it, to hear Lucca talking about the frost biting, to see Marle shivering with the cold, even though she wouldn’t admit it.

Marle would not say if she were dying, right now, too caught up in her grief for Crono and hiding from that pain. Ayla had seen that back home, as well. But no one there had the chance she and the others had been given, to bring back the one lost. Maybe because Lavos had killed him, and everything the great fire touched was tied into their moving through places as they did, as if it were all one long nightmare, and the person sleeping was trying to wake.

Especially from Crono’s death. Making sure they had the doll and the egg, letting Marle and Lucca know where to go when they needed to do this. Trying very, very hard to wake from that, she thought as the world began to glow. Even the snow was not as white as the moment that followed, bringing them back to the place they had spoken of when they first told Ayla how he died.

A strange place, even stranger than the old man’s home at the end of things. There, you could still hear the wind, hear water falling somewhere. Here, everything was completely still, even her friends. Even Crono. But they were able to move him, and when they did it all began to move again. She felt as if they were being pushed away and had no problem with that - who would want to stay in such a dead place, even if it had been a happy one?

* * *

After that first moment of fear and despair when it seemed like it hadn’t worked, the wonder that overwhelmed Marle made them all seem to fade away. She couldn’t have stopped talking to Crono if she tried and she wasn’t interested in stopping anyway. At some point, she kind of noticed Lucca pulling her up and heard Ayla telling Crono they needed to leave the mountain, but she just kept talking as they walked.

It was like walking on air, like nothing could touch her. Even when they reached the sliding ice and she really had to stop talking, the danger and the future that had been weighing her down didn’t seem to matter anymore. They had Crono back, _she_ had Crono back, and after that everything would work out.

No matter how many points in time they needed to visit or how many butts had to be kicked. Everything would be fine.

**Author's Note:**

> Many, many thanks to my beta Tuesday, without whom this fic would definitely make less sense. <3


End file.
